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Category Archives: Life Experience

I don’t really do New Years Resolutions, firstly because as the year goes on something that seemed so super important in January is no longer as relevant in August, and secondly, because I don’t want to start the year with the pressure. So instead of resolutions, I have decided on some basic goals instead:

1. Learn how to use my DSLR in manual. I have dabbled but usually opt for my comfort zone of Aperture, it is now the time to focus on that manual mode.

2. Be more patient. One day, hopefully I will have achieved more of the things I aspire to, like earning enough to save a decent amount each month/actually contemplate grown-up-adult-life-expenses such as a bond or new car, until then, I like my flat, I still love my car and am enjoying the non-monetary aspects of my job so far. I have been in Joburg-land for a year, and I have many more to explore the area/make more friends/make more memories.

3. Take more photos. Yup, cause I honestly really don’t think I take enough, or at least I didn’t in 2013, so that needs to change!

4. Find ‘me’ again. 2013 was hard. It was long. At times it was quite brutal. But it wasn’t all bad, and it didn’t all hurt. I think I lost myself for a while, getting too bogged down in the crappy things that happened, so bogged down that I forgot to really appreaciate the good things, including myself, my strengths and my abilities. So in 2014 I am going to focus on what I can do well, not on what I can’t. I am going to take pleasure in just being me, not obsess about what I may not be.

5. Decorate the flat. In December 2013 I moved into a new flat with the boyfriend. New life experience for me in many ways. I want our flat to reflect this new life experience, reflect that we live there together, reflect that we are in a flat in Jhb not a digs in Grahamstown, and reflect us. I also want to tap more into my creative side this year and am hoping to do some of that through the flat decorating process.

6. Keep fit. Ok so this could be a big goal like go to gym 5 times a week or lose those extra 2 kgs I always moan about. But, well, I also want to enjoy the year, and I want to avoid making myself miserable by obsessing over times I overate or that day I missed gym etc. Life is about balance, right?

7. Bake more. What a nice contradiction with number 6 🙂 The thing is, I have always loved baking, but I’ve gotten rather lazy about it over the last two years. A big problem is finding people to eat the baked goods, before I consume them myself and have an extra 5 kgs to lose… So this is a problem I will need to solve, and then bake some new recipes for a change 🙂

8. Be a tourist in Johannesburg. I have been here for a year now, and there is definitely a lot I could have done last year that I did not do…therefore I will just need to jump onto the tourism wagon in 2014:)

And so I leave you with the quote below, a summary of some of my goals, if you will.

1. As of the 1st of October I started a new job, and thus hopefully a new chapter. Goodbye to the public sector, hello to the private sector. 2. It is officially summer in Johannesburg. We also finally had some rain. Which I am very happy about, really, but at the same time that rain came with GauTrain delays. All in all I spent two hours on the train on Monday evening trying to get home from Hatfield (where I now work…cause I have this new job and all :)) and I really can imagine a better way to spend two hours then on a train that keeps stopping for now explicable reason, the explanations from the GauTrain operators comprising of ‘temporary delay due to technical difficulties’ and thus seriously found wanting. It would really just help if they could explain something about the technical difficulties, even if the explanation is ‘sorry folks, the trains are just in shock from actual rain, it’ll take time for them to adapt’ or whatever the real reasons were. Although as much as I do not know about trains, surely by 2013 trains should be able to operate during a rain storm, just like in general? But anyway, like I said, I was happy to see some rain, even if I saw it all from a non-moving train which contained the loudest woman in history. I now know where she and her husband are from, (SA and US if you were interested…don’t worry, I wasn’t either), where her husband works (the UN), about how she studied in America and used to teach dance to pay back some study bills. Needless to say, it was a long two hours. But summer = awesome so I’ll stop complaining now.

3. The travel bug has bitten me again. Which is really, really bad. Because all I want to do is start planning trip overseas. And I currently want to go to far too many different (and far apart) places. Basically I want to do an African trip and a European trip. Cannot get more different really. Also, did I mention that I have like no money? And won’t earn enough to save much for a while still… So this is a really stupid time to start daydreaming about travels, but, well I am. Will have to satisfy myself with Pinterest browsings for the time being. But in my head a bit of a 2015 travel plan is starting to develop. Watch this space.

4. Apparently my daydreams think money grows on trees, because I also really, really want a dog. Which is such a perfect thing to want when living in Johannesburg, working in Hatfield, when non-pet friendly flats are more available then pet-friendly ones, and when I have my travel plans and ideas swirling around in my head…

Like this:

So this past weekend I had the great honour of helping out at AP’s sisters wedding. It was probably the most stunning wedding I have been to thus far, though I may be biased as I helped to set it up…

Needless to say, photos, a lot of photos, are coming soon. Until then, here are five things this weekend taught me:

1. Weddings are hard work, therefore you will need to enlist the help of others, including males who can lift heavy things and someone who knows anything about flower arrangements (i.e. not me.)

2. If you drink red wine on the dance floor, or even near the dance floor, you will spill. Both on yourself and others around you. Even if its not actually your fault, someone else will cause you to spill. Not only is this harmful to the pretty things you and others are wearing, it is also a waste of wine.

3. Don’t take your whole bag to the party, yes you may need all those little things you keep in there, put them in a smaller bag, there is nothing more stressful then waking up (hungover) the next morning missing your handbag. I.e. the one with your phone, wallet, car keys, flat keys and so on in it. (It turned out ok, I found it!)

4. Don’t let your boyfriends naughty uncles order you drinks. Doing this can land you with a quadruple vodka, lime and water. Yes you can water this down as much as possible, sip it slowly and so on, but in the end you’ve had a quadruple vodka lime and water. This does not end well.

5. Don’t go to sleep still in your party dress (see number 4 above). This will be uncomfortable and I doubt it is too good for the dress either. Also, if said dress is made with silky material, your chances of sliding off the bed in your sleep are higher. True story. I have the bruise to prove it. And I still blame the vodka, and the uncle.

When living in Cape Town, the market on Saturday mornings at Old Biscuit Mill was always an indulgent favourite. I was a fan. I even withstood the parking difficulties, that awkward feeling I always get when around them cool hipsters, and the masses and masses of people, because I really enjoyed that market, if I was in the right mood. (Lets be honest, if you are tired or a bit crabby, wading through crowds of people after spending some time finding a parking is usually not exactly what you’d feel like doing…)

Somehow it took me quite a few months to get to Johannesburg’s ‘Old Biscuit Mill’ equivalent. The Neighbourgoods Market at 73 Juta Street, Braamfontein. As much as I would love to tell how I spent my Saturday morning surrounded by friends eating sweet treats and drinking frozen margaritas in the sun, I did this first exploration of the Neighbourgoods Market on my lonesome. Firstly because I am still trying to find those friends I really fit in with/find new friends at all! Secondly, AP was at work. Thirdly, when I was eternally single, I refused to let that stop me doing whatever it was I wanted to do. Now I am in a relationship but single in a different way, I am no longer surrounded by a group of ‘girl friends’ in the way I was before, so I decided that that wouldn’t stop me from doing what I want to do either. So I took me, myself and my camera to the Neighbourgoods Market. Here are some of the photos I took. It had a great vibe, slightly more space than the Biscuit Mill but somewhat less of the great variety of foodstuffs offered by Biscuit Mill. However it does have a brightly, sunny ‘deck’ area where you could (if you are not me in my current ‘limbo’ state) go and chill with friends and a craft beer or margarita and some yummy things to munch on. All in all it is definitely a great way to spend a Saturday morning/lunch time, massive group of friends or on your ace.

So I bought some cupcakes (which were AMAZING! And remember I am a baking addict, I have eaten and baked a lot of cupcakes in my time, these really were delicious) and a craft beer for AP – its called a ‘BoneCrusher’, which is an odd interesting name for beer, and seems to be very popular.

Those stairs lead to that sunny fabulous chilling area I mentioned earlier. Just incase you wanted to know.

So I have gone through quite a few big changes over the last few years, including starting this blog (a while ago). I seem to be in a relatively settled area of my life *for now* and decided I wanted to get back into my blogging. Between living in Cape Town, moving back to Grahamstown to study, moving up to Johannesburg and finally finding employment, life has been rather insane. Plus now that I am working I really started to feel I need some form of a creative outlet to keep some balance in that thing we call life. So I am going to try get back into regular blogging.

But to launch off this new phase I wanted to give the blog a makeover. I decided to try my hand at the self-hosting, wordpress.org side of things as the theme and editing options within wordpress.com quite often frustrated me. So I got working on that, finally settled on a theme and started playing. But it just didn’t feel right, and to be paying (self-hosting fees) for something that didn’t feel right made it feel worse. Thus I am now back to wordpress.com and with the help of my newest toy (my Apple Ipad 4) have finally settled on a look for the blog that I like.

So welcome to the new Beef and Bubbles, I hope to create a fun and worthwhile read/browse for anyone out there who is interested.

Please feel free to drop me an email at beefandbubbles@gmail.com, if ever, whenever you want.